I'm looking at Discount van & truck ( http://www.discountvantruck.com/ (http://www.discountvantruck.com/) ) captains chairs again because I cannot afford Flexsteels and can't find any good used ones for decent prices and especially anywhere near me.
I know this has come up over the years, for those who have them, what model does everyone have, how long have you had them now and how have they held up? Would you recommend them still? I can't decide which would give best support without being overly hard or soft and especially years down the road.
-Dave
I have the Venture model, nice seats, 4 years old now and still like new
I pulled mine from a super clean Chevy Astro Van. I had to make adapter plates to line the chairs with the standard RV swivel bases. I like them because the fit us short people very well. They are one of the few vans it seems to still have had arm rests on both sides. FWIW...
Good luck!
Glenn
I have an old set of Flexsteel seats that i replaced in my bus that are in good shape, just worn some. Not leather but the price is right.....free! When we get to Yuma in a few weeks i can take a photo and send it to you. I think that we will probably go thru SLC on our way to WA. next spring or maybe we can find someone headed that way sooner if you want them.
Personally I think you are better off without leather because it is hot and dries out without a lot of care, especially in the desert. I got seats out of my Ford Jamboree that I retired. If on a tight budget you can get seats out of trailers and motorhomes that have been in wrecks at the junk yard or for sale in the paper for very inexpensively. Reupholster them and fatten them up if need be so they fit in with your decor.
Our replacement seats are ultraleather and are a lot better than real leather. ;D
Good goin Ed!! And you cant beat the price!!
Quote from: Ed Hackenbruch on September 30, 2010, 09:34:46 PM
I have an old set of Flexsteel seats that i replaced in my bus that are in good shape, just worn some. Not leather but the price is right.....free! When we get to Yuma in a few weeks i can take a photo and send it to you. I think that we will probably go thru SLC on our way to WA. next spring or maybe we can find someone headed that way sooner if you want them.
I could be very interested in that deal. I doubt I'd be ordering anything any sooner than 3 weeks or possibly spring time though I don't really want to wait quite that long though in reality probably will do it anyway. Maybe if nobody it transiting through here I could drive there or meet at least part way sometime. I could recover them in ultraleather or cloth so if the frames are good then I'm probably good to go.
I don't really want leather, my Navigator leather seats are wearing out and irritating me, ultraleather or cloth if the way I plan to go.
-Dave
I laugh when you talk about saving money by getting some worn out chairs and reupholstering them. Have you priced upholstery material lately? We had the the two chairs and sofa from our bus done last spring and the upholstery material started at $30/yard and went up from there to over $200/yard. My wife had found some material at Gamblers RV Surplus in Quartzsite, AZ for $3/yard last winter. The upholstery lady was willing to use it but charged $150 extra to offset the profit she didn't make on selling us material. My wife had bought 25 yards of material and there were only a few scraps left. She estimated it took 5 yards per chair and 15 yards for the sofa. It may take less material with a solid color fabric than with the patterned fabric we had. The labor was $200/chair and $500 for the sofa. Those were the cheapest prices we could find in our area. The highest cost place was $2500 labor for the three pieces and he wouldn't use our material. So please do the research before getting chairs that need reupholstering.
Good luck, Sam MC8
Quote from: Sam 4106 on October 01, 2010, 01:42:38 AM
I laugh when you talk about saving money by getting some worn out chairs and reupholstering them.
Well I have to chuckle at your attitude as well although it's overtly hostile and unwlecome from the beginning.
Has it occurred to you that maybe I might happen to have a little ultraleather of one or two colors and some decent cloth already should we choose that route? Have you thought that possibly my father in law spent his entire career owning and operating a custom boat building and upholstery shop and has everything that I need for making the covers? All I personally own for such stuff are hog ring pliers and fabric pullers though he has it all. I also to have a buddy who works at a shop and can get the foam for cost or maybe cost + 1 or 2 points.
Now I ask you, look at the stated price of used frames assuming usable condition. Factor in the material that I have, the access to the foam and the cost of some materials that I don't have and given the access to the tools and labor. Would that not be likely to be much cheaper than new and fun that we did it ourselves?
Perhaps it's best if before you jump in with both feet and speak that you make positive that you know all of the facts or ask first. I would love to have a nice new pair of ultraleather seats and that option is still open but I guess I just don't have the budget that you do though I may have some different connections and don't mind the work, that's why I'm doing this to begin with though granted, time is money or rather time off the road.
Another thought, I thought that the entire points for our creating these buses as we are were because we could do them our own ways with individuality and\or also because we cannot afford or want a Marathon or maybe even a new $200k plus class A S&S.
Back to the subject matter - Anyone have any feedback on the chairs / sofas from Discount Van Truck. I too have been looking at them for quit awhile. They don't have anything close to me to touch and feel so feedback from others is the only thing we can go on. Kenny
It is good stuff I have installed it for people I like it as good as anything on the market but I am not a fan of Flexsteel I used Villa in my conversion and I think it was overpriced ,delivery was the only problem I had with Discount Van it was about 10 days late.
I have a Villa 6'3" hide a bed coach with under neath storage needs upholstering you can have but it is pickup only I won't ship
good luck
We bought a nice fold out sofa from them in Jan 2008. The description was:
"280178671773 Frontier Sofa Bed RV, VAN and Motorhome Furniture 1 US $599.00" It has what I think it has ultraleather upholstery.
It was listed on Ebay and we picked it up at their factory. I had assumed at that cost, they imported it from Mexico. It turns out that their factory makes both the metal frames and then does the upholstery at a plant in the LA area. They can make most any type of chair/sofa at their plant.
I picked it up at their factory:
7601 Ramish Ave.
Bell Gardens, CA 90201
What an experience that was. You definitely would not go down there at night!!!
They were very accommodating. They had a couple of guys disassemble the sofa and then loaded it in the bus and reassembled it.
I have problems sleeping at night, so I sometimes go out to the sofa to read and listen to my music. Have spent many nights on that couch and it still looks great. I don't fold it out, so don't know how good of a bed it would make.
Can't speak to the comfort of their chairs.
Assuming their business practices are still the same, I would give them a good recommendation.
Jim
Please dont compare the garbage leather in a Navigator and other domestic cars and trucks to good quality leather found in top end automobiles. The leather used in low end vehicles is painted instead of dyed, you could rub oil on it for 100 years and the leather will just continue to dry and crinkle up underneath. Thats what you see flaking off them, its paint! Vat dyed leather is soft and supple. No, leather is not as cool or warm as cloth, but thats why God made Sheep.
I'm not all that impressed with flexsteel either. The few ive had got very uncomfortable after a few hours on the road. They seem to look a lot better than they feel on your back side. Odd no one ever puts Recaros or some other type of ergonomic seat in something made to travel long distances. Style and decor seem to often to take precedence to being able to stand up straight and walk at the end of the day.
Quote from: Paladin on October 01, 2010, 03:27:23 AM
Quote from: Sam 4106 on October 01, 2010, 01:42:38 AM
I laugh when you talk about saving money by getting some worn out chairs and reupholstering them.
Well I have to chuckle at your attitude as well although it's overtly hostile and unwlecome from the beginning.
Dave:
I don't think Sam was hostile at all, but YOU sure are in your reply. I think Sam was just trying to make sure you had your bases covered, which apparently you do, but of course, you had said nothing about it in the beginning. if you want to get opinions from others, there is really no need on your part to bite people's heads off. I think most of us just want to be helpful.
If you want to vent your anger, that is what mother-in-laws are for. ;)
My two pesos' worth.
Ok guys don't let a furniture post turn into a p***ing contest play nice we are headed in the wrong direction
good luck
I agree, gents. Let's keep it calm. No reason to turn a nice thread into a debate. And I don't think the other "supporting" material to those two posts help either....
Just my two cents.
John
There are many ways to source inexpensive or free material. In Los Angeles California there is an area known as the "garment district" where fabric is VERY cheap. I bought some heavy duty velvet upholstery material down there years ago and paid $200 for about 100 yards. Foam is also available there and inexpensive. Additionally, the thrift shops around here have lots of fabric and sheets, drapes, etc. can receive new life as upholstery material. Foam is very easy to cut with an electric knife (like is often used for cutting Turkey at Thanksgiving). The easiest way I have found is to cut a piece of plywood to size for the top and bottom to that you would glue the foam. Measure and cut light weight sheet material to wrap around the foam and staple down to the back of the back of the plywood (dint stretch it taunt, it needs a little give). Use fabric glue around the ends for a secure closure and to guard against unraveling. Then take your fabric and measure and cut and secure the ends with fabric glue. Then cover the sheet material and again, staple on the back to the plywood. At this point if the back is going to be seen then you can take 1/4" foam and cut to fit the back of the sofa, cover the foam with a layer of sheet material and then a layer of upholstery fabric and fold all ends around the foam and sew around with the edges of the sheet material and upholstery folded over the end of the foam. Then just tack up the back to the seat you made in the prior step and cover the tacks with glued on trim or hand sew a trim to it to cover up the tacking.
I did a Santa Clause set similar to this, I will take photos later.
QuoteThe upholstery lady was willing to use it but charged $150 extra to offset the profit she didn't make on selling us material. My wife had bought 25 yards of material and there were only a few scraps left. She estimated it took 5 yards per chair and 15 yards for the sofa. It may take less material with a solid color fabric than with the patterned fabric we had. The labor was $200/chair and $500 for the sofa. Those were the cheapest prices we could find in our area. The highest cost place was $2500 labor for the three pieces and he wouldn't use our material.
Gee, that is expensive! I would have absolutely found a different route (possibly by shopping around junk yards for rv sofas and chairs that were already what I liked). Im fortunate though, I have friends and family that do upholestry work and can get more detailed stuff done for cheaper then that or I can disassemble the piece and use the fabric as the pattern and take my time by machine and hand sewing it back together.
I purchased both couches, dinette, and captains chairs from Discount Van and Truck, they were excellant as quality goes, and the price was hard to beat, they came very well packaged. I even bought Ultraleather for the ceiling panels. Ivas was excellant to work with!
These chairs are usable as is, when we got the bus we wanted to brighten it up as some of the other furniture was dark and we have a red oak interior. :)
Did anyone buy any of the options for the seats? If so have they held up? Just curious, kind of shows me overall quality.
After reading past archive threads on the company it's clear that most people if not all were happy with their purchases though shipping is slow. It sort of appears that most people are still pleased now based on what I've gathered. It seems their reputation is very good.
I think the only model name thrown out there for captains chairs was the Ventura which was liked. I wish I knew of other models though too.
Anyone else buy from there?
Re fabric:
There is an NPS store here across town from me which also has an Ebay and an Amazon store.
( http://www.npsstore.com/ (http://www.npsstore.com/) ). For those who don't have one it's a damaged freight or "freight recovery" store and I've found that they have some amazing finds in among the other junk, to each according to his needs I guess.
We've found some really great deals on rolls of material and such. If you get in before the new stuff is picked over you can buy whole rolls of ultraleather and cloth for really good prices and some leather...except the leather which is still expensive and spotty on amounts and colors. I was hoping to find as much ultraleather as I could in the same color and type to line the ceiling within the plans that we had or at least use it for other projects....still gathering but it does come in. My brother found me quite a bit of it since he lives nearby and can check for me. We did a boat partially in ultraleather once and I really liked it, not mine though. :(
I've bought brand new parts for the bus project and for home with no damage at all and for very good prices. They have quite a number of neat hardware gadgets that I otherwise can't go snoop around looking at to see what I can build with them. Things like rollers, some actuators here and there, rams, slides, hinges, etc...
I almost bought a new in box electric fireplace from there.
They even had some new tires (new both date and no mileage) out there in my sizes though I'd never heard of the brand and so I passed. They were gone when I went back. I bought some light up emergency cones for a couple bucks each.
Anyway, kind of a cool place.....
If you ever get to the Portland area my wife gets great buys at Fabric Depot just off I 5 so she says and she buys the ultra leather for 10 bucks a yard at a place in Vegas for top grade other grades are 7 to 8 bucks a yard
good luck
here is the photos I mentioned earlier. Pardon the mess, they have been in my storage room for years. You can tell where I hurried on the corners in the prop box and the chair (I did these just about a week before I had to setup and never got around to fixing it. The corners on the bench I thought was the most important and would be in photos the most so I took most of my time doing it).
Prop Box (originally a thrift shop find for about $1.00)
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi495.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr315%2Fhappycamperbrat%2Fcompleted%2520projects%2FOct2010012.jpg&hash=ed4362895239ac5aa86d949d007af6a65d7e6621)
Santa's Elf Chair (originally a wooden frame that was in the dump behind an antique store, bought for $20.00)
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi495.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr315%2Fhappycamperbrat%2Fcompleted%2520projects%2FOct2010013.jpg&hash=d06c11415e509eb9b69f677e8a441e914256ceeb)
Santa's Bench (originally a mismatched bed I bought for $5.00 at a garage sale)
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi495.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr315%2Fhappycamperbrat%2Fcompleted%2520projects%2FOct2010014.jpg&hash=86752b06abf07b5cf7ad6ac5df3f823cb75b8afd)
For those who don't have one it's a damaged freight or "freight recovery" store and I've found that they have some amazing finds in among the other junk, to each according to his needs I guess.
We have one of those here on the shore, its called Unclaimed Freight. His prices reflect new store rates for yard sale quality. Wish we had one like yours
Here is a neat page of a busnut and how he did his dinette on a budget. Came out really cool I thought. http://www.vonslatt.com/bus-dine.shtml (http://www.vonslatt.com/bus-dine.shtml)
I bought mine from them about 4 years ago and have used them for 3 years, they are holding up very well. I don't remember the style but they are the ultra leather. We use the couch as a bed all the time for the kids and it is holding up very well and pretty comfordable. I have also ordered more fabric from them for the dash and other projects. I would buy from them again the only bad thing was the shipping was slow. Hope this helps with your decision. Jason
They call their fabric "Ultimate Leather". Based on the cost and the name I assumed it is some type of vinyl. It is really Ultraleather?
We have Bostrom air rides low boys that were in the coach when we got it but were never mounted, that I added swivels used that I got at Dr. Georges RV used parts supply in Sacramento, CA.
1 was missing the handle to lock it which I made a new one, and the other was missing the bearing race with I fabricated from a Teflon furniture mover. Got them both for $30.00 even on line they were 350.00 each to fit these seat. Score
We also got the ultra leather covers at camping world to keep the fabric clean and pet hair free.
Dave
Brian, ultra leather is made from PVC it is a vinyl
good luck
Quote from: luvrbus on October 03, 2010, 08:28:41 PM
Brian, ultra leather is made from PVC it is a vinyl
I understand Ultraleather is man made, but vinyl comes in all different grades from Ultraleather down to the nasty stuff they use in school buses that sticks to you. Is the stuff Discount Van and Truck uses the same as or similiar to Ultraleather?
I believe that ultraleather and ultimate leather are different, with ultraleather being the better product.
Our Lexus has the ultimate leather on the seat skirts it stays soft and hasn't discolored both are good products
good luck